Is knowing multiple languages attractive?

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Deltaville
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28 Jan 2016, 12:16 am

Well I know three languages. Polish is my first, and English and Hebrew (my dad is Jewish, so I had to learn it, I only have a rudimentary command of it) are my second and third respectively. Do you find it attractive for a partner in a relationship to know or at the very least, understand another language? Does it detract you in a relationship?

Please share your thoughts.


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Feyokien
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28 Jan 2016, 12:39 am

Yeah I think so. I wish I knew more than just English and the small amount of Spanish I know. I know the language of Geological terms among other things :nerdy: does that count? (rhetorical)



Kitty4670
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28 Jan 2016, 1:08 am

Knowing different languages are beautiful. My dad is Persian, I never learn the language, but I grew up listening to Persian music & watching Persian tv shows. In high school, I learned Spanish, I still know some words in Spanish & I know a few words in French, but I'm bad at it. I did learn Portuguese, I had a friend from Brazil.



mr_bigmouth_502
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28 Jan 2016, 3:28 am

It's a sign of worldliness and intelligence, so yes, I would definitely say that knowing multiple languages is an attractive trait.


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28 Jan 2016, 4:04 am

Yep.


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Yigeren
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28 Jan 2016, 4:20 am

One of my special interests is linguistics, so yes! At least to me :D



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28 Jan 2016, 7:57 am

No


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Spiderpig
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28 Jan 2016, 10:49 pm

I think it depends a lot on the particular languages.

Conlangs are likely to mark you as a geek. Natural languages which aren't the dominant one in any country will probably make you look like a backward country bumpkin, unless they're on the brink of extinction or already extinct; in this case, their "country bumpkin" stigma will probably have been forgotten and you'll just look like either a geek or a radical nationalist, possibly a terrorist.

Among the wrong crowd, any language you don't strictly need to know can mark you as a vain prick with too much time on their hands, and it may even be frowned upon to know any language you do need too well, especially if you make it obvious; e.g., pronouncing it half-decently, instead of not even bothering to approximate its phonetics.


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Yigeren
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28 Jan 2016, 10:57 pm

Spiderpig wrote:
I think it depends a lot on the particular languages.

Conlangs are likely to mark you as a geek. Natural languages which aren't the dominant one in any country will probably make you look like a backward country bumpkin, unless they're on the brink of extinction or already extinct; in this case, their "country bumpkin" stigma will probably have been forgotten and you'll just look like either a geek or a radical nationalist, possibly a terrorist.

Among the wrong crowd, any language you don't strictly need to know can mark you as a vain prick with too much time on their hands, and it may even be frowned upon to know any language you do need too well, especially if you make it obvious; e.g., pronouncing it half-decently, instead of not even bothering to approximate its phonetics.


Which natural languages do you know?



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29 Jan 2016, 1:32 pm

Only the ones I've written in here---not just about---beyond one-liners :lol: Definitely too few.


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Yigeren
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29 Jan 2016, 1:53 pm

I plan on learning five additional languages to English before I die, and I don't care if anyone thinks I'm a vain prick with too much time on my hands.

Chances are, four of the five will be ones that I don't really need to know. I sure don't need to know Mandarin.



Earthling
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29 Jan 2016, 2:01 pm

To me, not much. A little, but it's insignificant.
It's a very good trait in general, but not (very) attractive.
Might be because (if I count my mediocre Spanish) I'm trilingual so I'm used to it, it's nothing special.
But when someone can't even "get by" using English, that's a little repulsive to me.



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29 Jan 2016, 3:13 pm

Yigeren wrote:
I plan on learning five additional languages to English before I die, and I don't care if anyone thinks I'm a vain prick with too much time on my hands.

Chances are, four of the five will be ones that I don't really need to know. I sure don't need to know Mandarin.


Maybe I didn't get your previous post right. I'm sorry if I offended you or anyone else. I was answering the title question according to the attitudes I'm used to seeing in most people and the guilt I'm used to feeling about my interests, since I'd be hard-pressed to deny they're useless at best. This has also held me back considerably.

There are two current, natural and major languages I've been wanting to learn for years, but never got started with them. I'd also like to bring my Latin back from oblivion, and then there's Esperanto, which is the only language I actually began to learn in the last few years. I also want to learn Lojban.

Realistically, I doubt I'll ever get very far with my project.


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29 Jan 2016, 3:20 pm

It's not so attractive to me, but mostly because I have an audio processing disorder so even my native language American English often sounds foreign. I also have zero chance of learning a second language because of it.

I do however like the concept of different languages not only reflecting but shaping differences in how cultures conceive of what we'd assume was the same exact thing. Instead it turns out that the way we conceptualize just about everything is based on our prior knowledge, much of which is learned through...language.

Wait; do programming languages count? :wink:


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Last edited by Edenthiel on 29 Jan 2016, 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

sly279
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29 Jan 2016, 3:21 pm

Why so you so can talk bad about you in a language you don't speak and you'll never know?

I know so,emgerman still and tiny bit Russian. I know the German world for slut will you?



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29 Jan 2016, 3:27 pm

Spiderpig wrote:
Maybe I didn't get your previous post right. I'm sorry if I offended you or anyone else. I was answering the title question according to the attitudes I'm used to seeing in most people and the guilt I'm used to feeling about my interests, since I'd be hard-pressed to deny they're useless at best. This has also held me back considerably.

There are two current, natural and major languages I've been wanting to learn for years, but never got started with them. I'd also like to bring my Latin back from oblivion, and then there's Esperanto, which is the only language I actually began to learn in the last few years. I also want to learn Lojban.

Realistically, I doubt I'll ever get very far with my project.


I wasn't in the least bit offended :) I was only trying to explain that I really don't care what others may think about my interest and knowledge of languages, useful or not.

I did briefly start learning Esperanto years ago, but I don't think I'd find enough people to speak with, so I gave it up. It's an interesting language to study though, for sure.

I didn't know what Lojban is. But I just googled it. Whether or not it's useful, it's interesting. Nothing wrong with learning something like that. Learning is one of the most pleasurable things to do, in my opinion.

It seems you are very interested in the theory of languages in general. A career as a linguist would be really enjoyable, at least to me.

There's nothing wrong with your interests. I think languages are extremely important, for various reasons that I won't get into here. Whether anyone else has the ability to see that doesn't really matter, in my opinion.